Commonly Confused Word Pairs: Proved/proven II

September 6, 2007: Issue 203

A refresher on tenses of the verb prove:
This house proves that energy efficiency can be elegant.
A search of county records proved that the house was even older.
She has proved herself as a budget-friendly designer.

Note that in the final example, the past participle is proved, not proven. Use proven only as an adjective:
proven method

Who needs the Bionic Woman? We’ll be cutting out a little early Friday to catch the first episode of WordGirlon PBS. See a preview.

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